Event seeks to SPARCC designer donations

We see you strut your stuff each season in designer duds, and we’d say you wear them quite well.

Now, the Safe Place and Rape Crisis Center (SPARCC) is asking Longboaters to clean out their closets and donate their used designer duds for a good cause — and a good time.

From 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, April 25, SPARCC will hold a Reverse Designer Trunk Show at the Longboat Key Club & Resort, during which it will collect gently used, high-end fashion items. The event will also include wine and hors d’oeuvres.

If these clothing items are anything like their owners, they have some exciting stories behind them. That’s why the organization will ask donors to fill out a slip of paper with fun details about the item — i.e., “I bought this dress to wear to my daughter’s wedding,” or, “I purchased this designer purse while traveling in Italy five years ago.”

The slips will then be placed in the item’s pockets or inside the garment when the items are sold.

SPARCC will hold an event at the beginning of season to sell the fashionable finds, although organizers haven’t finalized the details.

“All funds raised will support our programs and our mission to ‘end domestic and sexual violence in our communities,’” wrote SPARCC President and CEO Olivia Thomas, in an email to the Longboat Observer.

The Reverse Designer Trunk Show is open to anyone who donates their designer clothing. And if you can’t make the event but still want to donate items, SPARCC representatives will be happy to pick up your donations.

SPARCC doesn’t plan to make the Reverse Designer Trunk Show a passing fad. Instead, organizers hope it could become an annual or semi-annual event.